ATM maker Diebold Inc. has reached a tentative agreement with U.S. authorities to settle allegations it paid bribes to Russian officials.The Wall Street Journal reports Diebold has an agreement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities in Exchange commission to pay $48 million in penalties to resolve allegations it violated an anti-bribery law.A company spokesman declined to comment to The Journal, as did an SEC spokeswoman.The newspaper notes that Diebold disclosed in July 2010 that it was investigating payments by its Russian subsidiary that may have been in breach of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits improper payments to foreign officials for a business advantage. In November 2010, the company fired its Russian leadership amid the probe.The price of resolving the issue has gone up. Diebold said in January it had set aside roughly $18 million for the eventual resolution of the FCPA investigation, according to The Journal.

FierceHealthcare.com draws attention to a blog post by the Cleveland Clinic's chief experience officer that argues hospitals need to step up their efforts to communicate with patients and give them more-personal attention.“This means attention from doctors and nurses at all feasible times, time to understand what each medication treats and any possible side effects, and, most important, what to do after discharge," writes Dr. James Merlino, who in addition to his Clinic role is founder and president of the Association for Patient Experience. Patients too often are made to feel they don't deserve a superior experience because health care is a necessity rather than a luxury, according to Dr. Merlino."In fact, the focus on the customer/patient should be the most important thing in health care — and it can be a real differentiator for hospitals," he writes. "But for many hospitals, patient experience is about making and keeping patients happy, which misses the point completely because patient experience is also about a hospital's philosophy about the delivery of care."

After recent announcements of the sales of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, the media world is filled with speculation about which big-name papers might be next for a deal.TheWrap.com, which covers entertainment and media, joins the fray and throws out lots of options. The last suggestion of papers to be sold is as follows:

All Advance papers, just all of them, please, as soon as possibleIn the last few years, Advance has been on a cutting spree. Cutting staff, cutting deliveries, cutting costs and cutting any potential that the papers might be able to turn things around. New Orleans is the largest city in America to be without a dedicated daily paper since Advance cuts its Times-Picayune circulation from daily to thrice-weekly (and then back to daily again, sort of, with the April introduction of Times-Picayune Street). The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Oregonian followed suit, with The Plain Dealer losing a third of its newsroom staff in one fell swoop just last week. Why bother at this point, Advance? Sell your ink to someone who wants to actually print it..

If you have a child going to college soon, Forbes.com thinks you have a lot of good options in Ohio.The website's ranking of the 25 best colleges in the Midwest includes five from Ohio.It ranks Oberlin College as the sixth-best Midwestern school, and No. 50 overall. Other Ohio schools that made the top 25 in the region were Kenyon College (No. 11 in the Midwest, No. 69 overall), Case Western Reserve University (No. 13 and No. 89, respectively), Denison University (No. 20 and No. 130) and Ohio State University (No. 22 and No. 138).The top two Midwestern schools are both in Illinois — the University of Chicago, at No. 1, followed by Northwestern University, in Evanston. I'd have switched those two, but I'm biased.You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio.

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